freeline-99 - Flipbook - Page 74
EXCLUSIVE
when it froze and annoyingly
being so shallow it seemed
to freeze at the drop of a hat,
when other lakes were ice free.
March 2025 was so warm and
it wasn’t long before I started to
spot the carp travelling along
the reed line on the bog side of
the lake. It had been 7 months
since my last bite but I was
s t i c k . If I h a d a t a k e, l e t i t r u n
o u t i n th e l a k e, w a l k r o u nd t h e
r e e d s , b a l a n c e o n a t y r e, g i v e
it sidestrain and net it!
After more of this hot weather,
t h e f i s h we r e s w i m m i n g ro u n d
s l o we r l o o k i n g f o r f o o d a n d
l o o k i n g c a t c h a b l e. I s a w t h e
Big un for the first time and he
looked ‘big’. A few days later I
more determined than ever to
catch the Big un which I had
nicknamed the ‘uncatchable’
for obvious reasons!
I’ve never known the weather
s o warm for March, and t h e
f i s h were loving it com i n g
a l ong the reedline and o n e
p a rticular spot, a horses h o e
s h ape in the reeds They we n t i n
o n e way and exited the o t h e r.
I dropped a few branche s i n
t h e bog and a scaffo ld bo a r d
t o be able to access this s p o t ,
t o be able to drop a rig i n
t h ere. The plan was fish o n e
r o d, rod ti p up high with t h e
r i g lowered into posi tion r i g h t
n e xt to the reeds on a t i g h t
l i n e with leadcore acting a s a
h a d m y f i rs t t a k e, a n d m y p l a n
w a s e x e c u t ed t o p e r f e c t i o n
and a pretty mirror was in the
net with starburst scales on
it. Another double I returned
i t wi t h a p i c i n t h e n e t j u s t f o r
reference and nicknamed it
‘the Pretty One’. Just two to
c a t c h n o w, o h a n d t h e ‘ C a r r o t ’
which never seemed to eat
anything
just repeatedly
s wa m o v e r t h e b a i t !
2 7 th Ma r c h t h e w e a t h e r h a d
turned cold and the wind
w a s f r e e zi n g. N o t h i n g w a s
c o m i n g i n to t h e r e e d s s o I
decided to fish further down
the lake and split two rods up
on single banksticks, to be
h o n e s t I r e al l y d i d n ’t e x p e c t
BigCarp 72
